Travel On The Bullet Train With A Snowboard!

by Damien Bray
(Sydney)

I want to travel from Tokyo to Nagano with snowboard bags, is it best to catch the bullet train from Tokyo station?

I need to travel to Hakuba on 13th March. There are 2 of us and we will have a large snowboard bag. Is Tokyo station the best station to catch the bullet train from? Is it a good area to look for accommodation?

Thanks

Hi Damien,

Great question re the bullet train and getting to Hakuba from Tokyo.

You're absolutely right - the fastest and easiest route is to catch the bullet train from Tokyo station to Nagano. You can see fares and timetable on this JR East page. Just choose Nagano Shinkansen from the drop down list where it says "Line".

Once you get to Nagano you will need to take a bus to Hakuba. This is the Nagano to Hakuba bus timetable at the moment.

Delivering Your Snowboard!

Traveling with your snowboard on the bullet train and bus could get difficult as there aren't any places to store big items like this. We recommend the local delivery system called Takkyubin. Have your snowboard delivered to your accommodation when you arrive and returned to the airport when you leave. You can organize this from Narita Airport or Haneda Airport, whichever one you are flying into. This way you can get on with enjoying your time in Tokyo and the journey to and from the different places.

Accommodation

I'm not sure whether you mean you are looking for accommodation in Tokyo or in Hakuba? So... here are some options for both : )

It's a good idea to use one of the hotel search aggregators that are now available online as they can save you quite a lot of money without you having to cut the quality of the accommodation you stay in. We use Hotels Combined on our site as they have always been great when we've booked our own holidays.

If you go to our Tokyo Hotel page you'll see the search box. For your first search put in Hakuba with your intended dates of stay and see what comes back.

For your second search on Tokyo, start by putting Tokyo in the search box with your dates. You'll get back a long list of hotels from all around Tokyo but, if you look to your left, you should see another box that says "Refine Your Search". Click on the little arrows pointing up and down next to where it says Tokyo and you should bring up a longer list of places (more specific). One of the choices is Tokyo Station : ) That way you know all the hotels you get back are in the area you want.

I hope this helps Damien. Let us know if you need anything else.